Lil Sis got the basic story of the phrase "Kilroy Was Here" in the comments to the
recent post. It was a ubiquitous World War II graffiti that seemed to pop up everywhere (one story says that Hitler saw it marked up in a bathroom in Potsdam, leading him to think Kilroy was an Allied spy). The best evidence suggests the origin is with a ship inspector named Kilroy who used the saying to mark the work he'd examined; others who saw the cryptic inscription carried it forward for their own mysterious reasons.
However, what I remember best about Kilroy, was a series of programs by that name on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color from sometime in the mid-1960s. At the time (I was around 6 years old) I didn't understand why every time the main character introduced himself, people gave him a funny look. It was a joke way over my head. Kilroy was played by the character actor Warren Berlinger (that's him on the left in the picture above, though not in a scene from the Kilroy series). everytime I saw him in anything else (and he popped up
a lot as a guest star on TV shows throughout the sixties and seventies) it always made me think of Kilroy. Now, I wish I could remember what the show was actually about!
Lil Sis got the basic story of the phrase "Kilroy Was Here" in the comments to the recent post. It was a ubiquitous World War II graffiti that seemed to pop up everywhere (one story says that Hitler saw it marked up in a bathroom in Potsdam, leading him to think Kilroy was an Allied spy). The best evidence suggests the origin is with a ship inspector named Kilroy who used the saying to mark the work he'd examined; others who saw the cryptic inscription carried it forward for their own mysterious reasons.
However, what I remember best about Kilroy, was a series of programs by that name on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color from sometime in the mid-1960s. At the time (I was around 6 years old) I didn't understand why every time the main character introduced himself, people gave him a funny look. It was a joke way over my head. Kilroy was played by the character actor Warren Berlinger (that's him on the left in the picture above, though not in a scene from the Kilroy series). everytime I saw him in anything else (and he popped up a lot as a guest star on TV shows throughout the sixties and seventies) it always made me think of Kilroy. Now, I wish I could remember what the show was actually about!
3 comments:
A WWII vet settles in a small town and lives with a fellow Marine's family in this four-part series, which originally aired as part of `Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.'
I looked it up for you John, very intersting that you actually remember things like this.
And there were only 7 episodes!!!
Cate
Cate,
Yeah, it's kind of weird that I remembered that the way that I did, but then Disney was probably my favorite show when I was a kid. I also have distinct memories of seeing a series called the Scarecrow from that same era (about a hero who dressed up like, well, a scarecrow), a story about a newsboy whose name I can't remember, and of course, Davy Crockett. There was also Spin and Marty, but I think that was from the Mickey Mouse club, not the prime-time show. I wonder if any of these things will ever be released to DVD. Maybe it's better they aren't, since they might never match the memory of how good I thought they were back then.
Dr. John
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